Like many designers participating in London Collections: Men, Patrick Grant weighed in on the Brexit referendum question, taking his bow in a T-shirt blaring his pro-Europe stance in huge capital letters: IN. As an additional subliminal signal, all of the billowing linen shirts in his E. Tautz collection for spring were also tucked in — into his fetish high-waist bottoms.
Apart from the cloying white Mary Janes, this smashing show rarely set a foot wrong, the rounded shapes, crisp coats and Armani-esque colors adding up to a compelling brand of easy chic. Consider but one ensemble: Short raglan-sleeve denim coat; oversized sky blue shirt; and Fifties-dad chinos. Smashing.
There was a youthful verve to his short-shorts in the shape SpongeBob favors, paired with oversized T-shirts and tab-collared shirts, many in uneven, hand-painted stripes.
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Backstage, Grant did not wish to elaborate on his political views. But he is getting behind another cause — the suit — a men’s wear mainstay overshadowed by outerwear and ath-leisure in recent years.
“We’ve just relaxed the whole thing, and all of a sudden it feels like a different attitude to the tailoring,” he said of his dropped-shoulder jackets and loose-yet-tapered trousers that mix more naturally with casual tops and denim. “I think it works.”
It does. You might even say it’s in.